After Dangal, I was back to square one: Fatima

She savoured overnight popularity and visibility as wrestler Geeta Phogat in Dangal, but actress Fatima Sana Shaikh says she had to start from the scratch when it came to landing a role in Thugs of Hindostan, a Yash Raj Films (YRF) production starring Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan.

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“It feels unreal,” Fatima gushed with excitement, on getting to play a YRF heroine so early in her career.

“It is a huge project and with one of the best production houses. And plus there’s Amitabh sir and AK (Aamir). I feel very fortunate,” added the actress, who feels this new opportunity is “god-sent”.

She admits nothing came without her share of struggle — even though she has been working with the best of talent since childhood. She played the baby girl Bharti in Chachi 420 with Kamal Haasan, and then in Dangal, she had Aamir play her onscreen father.

Thugs of Hindostan gets bigger with Amitabh and Aamir sharing screen space for the first time. And for Fatima, getting the film was “as difficult” as getting Dangal.

Chachi 420 happened when I was a child, and then I had to struggle again, I gave so many auditions. All this has come to me, but it came to me with a lot of effort... The struggle never ends.

“After Dangal, I was back to square one. For Thugs... also, I had to go through multiple rounds of auditions till I got the film. So, we can do several films, but every film will be like a first — at least it is so for me because you start from scratch,” added the 25-yar-old.

That’s why, she says, the effort is always to give one’s 100 per cent. —IANS